Back in Black as Hearts make impact

Graeme Macpherson
Football Writer

SO much pre-match coverage had been given to Rangers and their woes that it was almost forgotten that there would be two teams on the pitch at Ibrox on Saturday.

This was one way for Hearts to get everybody's attention.

The match was perhaps almost incidental to Rangers – what's three points when your very existence is at stake? – but to Paulo Sergio and his players it was a significant result for a number of reasons. The victory was their first at Ibrox since 2004 and brought to a winless sequence in the league that had stretched back to mid-January to an end. It strengthens Hearts' prospects of featuring in Europe next season – especially if Rangers are out of contention as seems likely – and will surely imbue them with much-needed confidence ahead of next weekend's Scottish Cup quarter-final tie against St Mirren.

Not even yet another missed penalty – a fifth in six attempts – could hold them back on this occasion, Jamie Hamill knocking in the rebound to put Hearts in front, after Ian Black had cancelled out Steven Davis' opener. Black, in fact, was one of the best players on the park, especially in the second half when Sergio stuck on Craig Beattie to give Gary Glen some company in attack and Hearts began to possess a threat where none had been evident in the opening period.

"He did well," said Black of Beattie." He works hard and will surely pick up goals soon, so he's a good addition to the squad. He's proved that he is a good player so the gaffer has brought him in and fingers crossed he starts hitting the back of the net soon."

Black, of course, had his usual pantomime villain role to fill as well, one he undertakes at virtually every away ground in the country. He didn't help his cause with a few mistimed challenges early on that should have earned him a booking, but the subsequent persistent heckling from the Rangers support failed to knock him off his stride.

"To be honest, I quite enjoy it," he admitted. "It shows that you're getting noticed. It helps. For them to give me a bit of stick and then to score made it a little bit sweeter. I have to be mature and get on with it and concentrate on playing. I probably get stick in 10 stadiums out of the whole SPL but it does not faze me. I just deal with it and get on with the game."

While he insisted Rangers' off-field problems made little impact on Hearts' pre-game preparations, Black did have sympathy for what their players are going through. It was not so long ago that it was Hearts deemed to be the club on the edge of the precipice, with players not being paid and the taxman threatening to wind them up over unpaid bills. "I feel sorry for them," he said. "It's people's jobs. They could be out of jobs and they have families to support. We went through it and I just hope they come out the other side."

Should Rangers' squad be greatly weakened by the prospect of redundancies, Hearts could be one of the teams to take advantage by moving further up the table. That idea, though, didn't sit easily with Black. "We don't want to benefit from anyone's problems," he said. "We want to do it on the pitch and win games, do it ourselves rather than by the problems that other people are going through."

Taken from the Herald